Bring ’em home
It seems the new government of Canada has no respect for the law despite the recent court ruling regarding the Canadian Wheat Board Act. The (Stephen) Harper government is determined to destroy the wheat board.
It is very curious that this schizophrenic “new government of Canada” would send troops to Afghanistan to help establish democracy, law and order, to promote respect for an impartial legal system and to strengthen civil liberties. But here in Canada, the “new government of Canada” thumbs its nose at a court ruling.
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All this after issuing a gag order on the Canadian Wheat Board; removing 16,000 farmers from the voters’ list; firing and replacing CWB directors; firing the CWB chief executive officer; former agriculture minister (Chuck) Strahl falsely alleged the CWB sold durum to Algeria below market prices; holding a plebiscite without safeguards for a fair and transparent vote; controls on election spending; no guarantee of ballot secrecy.
Does this sound like a democratic Canada or a warlord-governed Afghanistan?
I think we should call our troops home. We need them to protect our democracy from the attacks of the “new government of Canada.”
– Frank Orosz,
Creston, B.C.
Colonialism
The federal Liberal opposition party’s plan to introduce proposals into parliament limiting government involvement in the Canadian Wheat Board, outlined in the Aug. 16 issue of The Western Producer, is another exercise in colonialism.
The CWB monopoly over western farmers’ wheat sales was brought in by an eastern based Liberal government in 1943, who by coincidence did not include producers within areas the Liberal party depend on for majority support.
Today, that same Liberal party, still depending on eastern votes and having almost no representation in Western Canada, has plans to further enshrine a paternalistic organization ruling the lives of western farmers. ÂÂ
The article suggests that the proposed changes are an effort to make it even more difficult for western farmers to achieve freedom, which is just a continuation of Mr. Goodale’s action when he was minister responsible for the CWB.
Ralph Goodale and fellow Liberal politician Wayne Easter from Prince Edward Island would improve their credibility and that of the Liberal party if their proposed changes to the CWB Act included expansion of the designated area to all parts of Canada.
Failing to include farmers outside of Western Canada in the monopoly of the CWB will be acknowledgment that both these politicians are grandstanding and that they understand the rejection they will certainly face by eastern voters.
The plebiscite held in the spring of 2007 on barley marketing clearly indicated that a large majority of farmers wanted options to sell their barley, including sales opportunities outside the CWB.
According to Mr. (Ken) Ritter, CWB chairman of the board of directors, the plebiscite results were consistent with their surveys and therefore were not a surprise. Considering this, one has to wonder why the Liberal party continues to waste effort and parliamentary time on an organization which has used the threat of arrest, seizure of personal property and jail time to maintain control.
– Albert J. Wagner,
Stony Plain, Alta.
Dust, dust, dust
In June there were letters and articles regarding oil company landmen. Some landowners could get together and write a book on “oil landmen we have known.”…
But this letter isn’t supposed to be about landmen; it’s about dust. Anyone who doesn’t live here doesn’t realize how bad it is in a heavy oil field.
I’ve stood on a hill near the middle of this home quarter and, looking north, been unable to see more than half a mile. After that it is a solid wall of dust. Trees and buildings were obliterated and that wall of dust extends 40 or more miles and can be seen from heights of land from a distance of anywhere up to 40 miles.
Crops along any of the dusty roads are hard to swath, and will not be affected by weed spray. Sometimes headlights must be turned on in vehicles. Newly weaned calves have developed respiratory troubles. I have photos of cattle grazing in dust.
It has been suggested that certain people in high positions be incarcerated beside a dusty road and even be handed their meals covered with dust.
Hanging out the laundry, letting children play on the lawn, eating outside in the summer, picking produce and eating it without washing it – all things we once took for granted – became impossible for some people.
We have stood at gravesides for the last rites for old neighbours and friends while a cloak of dust settled on us. …
There have been accidents and deaths because of the dust. The portion of 684 north of Waseca, I was told, averaged 300 oil related trucks to every farm or private vehicle. Before it was blacktopped, it was well known for the place to drive if you wanted your windshields smashed. …
We so often hear, “you farmers make money from the oil.”
In case you didn’t know, I can assure you that any sentence starting with “you farmers” will be derogatory.
We deserve every penny and more. Would our detractors be happier if we were paid nothing?
And we will be told that the oil money and the jobs keep the farm going. It is apparently taken for granted that we should be paid starvation wages for farming; that farming can be shrugged off.
Meanwhile, the government rakes millions from our area and we get little back. We live in dust, in what was once beautiful country now an industrialized area, where drugs and crime and other unsavory ways of life have become the new culture, almost obliterating our once vibrant rural culture….
It’s time the cocky oil business was treated like any other business and not like it was some special entity. Meanwhile, as one man who lost his water well due to seismic tests said, “we were just in their way.”
Much as were the aboriginal people when the first Europeans arrived on these shores.
– C. Pike,
Waseca, Sask.
Barley stew
Our government says they have a majority for choice marketing. The vote was 14 percent no wheat board, 48 percent choice and 38 percent wheat board.
Add 14 percent to 48 percent equals 62 percent but if you add 48 percent to 38 percent we have 86 percent for the wheat board.
Therefore, either way you add, it makes for a bad-tasting stew. End result: none over 50 percent.
Our former wheat board minister has said we want a strong wheat board. How will it happen in a choice situation? What is their plan?
However, friends, I believe there may be a solution. Where there is a will there is a way. We need to put our differences aside and work for the best way to market barley and wheat.
I frequently hear that farmers rarely agree on anything but we are all in the same boat. We want the best we can get from the marketing sector.
What if the presidents of our farm organizations from the three prairie provinces got together to solve this debate on marketing? I think this is too important an issue to leave for the government to decide.
A plan for an informed, educated decision could be something like this: 1. The presidents of each farm organization could get together to devise a plan to work through the two-sided dilemma we are in.
2. They could elect some open-minded persons from their own area (three or more) and gather information to find out what the truth is for the best marketing of our grain. In the papers, we read lots of half-truths and myths on both sides of the debate.
3. Check out all aspects to get a clear picture of the open market grains we are selling, including what we can expect south of the border re: tariffs.
4. Look at the crops we sell on the open market so that farmers can make an informed decision….
It is up to you farmers. I believe in “divided we fall, united we stand.” I have retired from farming after more than 40 years but care deeply about the situation we are in now. We need to find a cure.
– David I. Peters,
Morden, Man.
Wishes ignored
According to an article in your Aug. 14 issue, Ralph Goodale and the Easter bunny want to introduce legislation to make changes to the Canadian Wheat Board almost impossible. They want to give the CWB directors more power than they already have.
I ask the pair of you, how many bushels of grain have you ever sold through the CWB?
According to the Liberal appointee who ruled on the Friends of the CWB case, changes can only be made by the CWB directors and farmers.
Sixty-two percent of the farmers voted for an end to the monopoly in barley marketing. Did that make any difference to the directors? Absolutely not.
They totally ignored the wishes of the majority and went to court to maintain their control. They seem to be prepared to protect their little kingdom at all costs.
(CWB chair) Ken Ritter is continually spewing fertilizer with statements like, “the majority of farmers are satisfied with the present system. The CWB operated in the best interests of farmers. The CWB gets premium prices. The questions in the barley plebiscite were confusing,” etc. …
According to reports in the newspapers, the maltsters were going to sue the CWB for $50 per tonne if they had to purchase barley on the open market. The malting people use approximately 900,000 tonnes per year.
They contracted 600,000 tonnes at $50 per tonne below market value. Even if the CWB sells the rest at market value, the average price will be $33 per tonne lower than it should be.
The vocal minority who support the monopoly could never supply enough barley to satisfy the requirements of the malting industry. If all the farmers who produce the majority of the grain refused to sign CWB contracts, the CWB would be forced to make changes.
If you have to sell grain to pay bills, the feed market will probably get you as much as the CWB malt price, and you won’t have to wait a year and a half for your money or take a substantial discount to get paid up front.
– Roger Brandl,
Fort St. John, B.C.
Wrong-headed
Canadians should worry about the direction (prime minister Stephen) Harper’s minority conservative government is attempting to change Canada’s beliefs in providing for people’s basic well being, peacekeeping, pride in sovereignty, concern for our planet’s survival and Canada’s belief in democratic traditions and institutions.
Consider how his government has: discredited the Kyoto Accord and demonstrated a cavalier approach to environmental issues; supported (former federal agriculture minister) Chuck Strahl’s autocratic removal of the Canadian Wheat Board’s CEO; holding secret meeting with supporters of dual marketing; manipulating the vote to remove barley from the CWB’s jurisdiction; Harper defying the judge’s ruling that Parliament must vote on changes to CWB’s marketing structure and his appointment of controversial Gerry Ritz as agriculture minister who doesn’t stand up for Saskatchewan on this issue or the broken promise regarding equalization; destroyed Canada’s first national child-care agreement and replaced it with an unaccountable cash handout to parents and tax credits for private companies that create unaccredited child-care spaces; cut literacy programs, the Status of Women’s budget and the Court Challenges Program, thus showing an arrogant disregard for the less fortunate….
If Harper signs the Security and Prosperity Partnership without Parliament’s approval, Canada will be harmonizing public policies with the United States – foreign, cultural, social, taxation, defence.
Surely Canadians will reject the Harper government’s wrong-headed direction.
– Joan Bell,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Swift kick
Just wondering how often the cattlemen can keep taking a swift kick between the legs.
After reading about Canadian Cattlemen’s Association policy about-face on BSE payments, what changed these people’s minds overnight? Was it the bad lobster or the $200 bottle of wine or the king-sized bed?
Worried about trade challenges? Do you think the U.S. is worried about trade challenges? Same old story: try and clean out the cow-calf producer. Last year we sold our calves in January. We sell at the same time every year. The cheque was $20,000 less than the year before.
Last year the auctions were booked solid for cow dispersals. This year I hear it’s the same.
Most of us are still trying to pay back our $100 head advance from a few years ago, which was supposed to be an advance on a Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization payment because of BSE. Any payments owing for subsidies etc. have been withheld till this advance is paid.
CAIS has been the biggest joke ever and you guys are helping it along. I would like to see the tab for you guys and your spouses down at Halifax.
Wake up and smell the coffee before there are no more cattle producers left in the country.
– Dale Fisher,
Glenboro, Man.
